1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the handling of fruits and vegetables during and after field harvesting. With the current trend toward the mechanized harvesting of certain produce, it has become necessary to place special emphasis on preserving its market quality. The picked produce is conventionally collected in pallet boxes which are forklifted out of the field and eventually emptied into bulk bins for storage. With each transfer, additional bruising is incurred, and the overall produce quality is reduced. Other disadvantages of this type of handling system include the difficulty of maneuvering pallet boxes between closely spaced rows, as well as the expenditure of considerable time and energy in shuttling the boxes to and from the field.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A partial solution to the bruising problem of mechanically harvested fruit is taught by Millier et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,522,696. The falling fruit is first decelerated by a webbed catch frame and is then conveyed to a water tank until it can be collected and removed by some undisclosed means. A similar arrangement is contemplated by Tennes et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,683, wherein the fruit collected by the catch frames is conveyed upwardly by a series of belts to a flume hopper. The hopper is continuously flushed with water or other liquid medium and the fruit is thereby fed gravitationally into a liquid-filled holding tank. While this system eliminates the pallet boxes, the complexities of the mechanical conveyor unit diminish its acceptability as a convertible attachment for a conventional farm implement. An alternate type of food lift designed for use in a processing plant is taught by Valdespino in U.S. Pat. No. 3,918,116. It operates by aspirating fruit suspended in liquid to a higher level above the liquid surface. However, the excessive size of the aspirator and the large liquid throughput render it impractical for field and many storage handling operations.